title: Characterization of the Ag mediated surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of saxitoxin.
abstract: The rapid detection and quantification of saxitoxin (STX) is reported using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with a colloidal hydrosol of silver nanoparticles. Under the conditions of our experiments, the limit of detection (LD) for STX using SERS is 3 nM, with a limit of quantification (LQ) of 20 nM. It is shown that the SERS method is rapid, with spectra being collected in as little as 5 seconds total integration time for a 40 nM STX sample. In order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, SERS spectra were generally collected with a total integration time of 1 minute (6 accumulations of 10 seconds each), with no need for extensive sample work-up or substrate preparation. Based on these results, the SERS technique shows great promise for the future detection and quantification of STX molecules in aqueous solutions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA. william.pearman@us.army.mil
authors.forename: William F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Pearman
authors.forename: S Michael
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Angel
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Ferry
authors.forename: Sherwood
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hall
mesh_terms: D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012530:Saxitoxin / Q000737:chemistry*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D012530:Saxitoxin; D012834:Silver